Connie Chung

Connie Chung
Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance, and basketball legend Magic Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive. In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.
Early life and education
The youngest of ten children, Chung was born in Washington, D.C., less than a year after her family emigrated from China and was raised in Washington, D.C. Her father, William Ling Chung, was an intelligence officer in the Chinese Nationalist Government and five of her siblings died during wartime. She was named after singer and actress Constance Moore.
In 1969, she graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in journalism.
Career
Early career
Chung was a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent for the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in the early 1970s during the Watergate political scandal. Chung left to anchor evening newscasts for KNXT, a CBS owned and operated station in Los Angeles (now KCBS-TV), with Joe Benti. The Los Angeles Times TV columnist said Chung "helped give Channel 2 an agreeable, respectable, middle-road identity". Chung also anchored CBS's primetime news updates (CBS Newsbreak) for West Coast stations from the KNXT studios at Columbia Square during her tenure there.
In early 2018, Chung was asked if she was sexually harassed in her career. She replied, "Oh, yeah! Oh, sure. Yeah. Every day. I mean, a lot. Especially when I started out". Later that year, following Christine Blasey Ford's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee of being sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh, Chung wrote an open letter to Blasey-Ford saying that she too was sexually assaulted when she was in college by the doctor who delivered her.
NBC
In 1983, Chung returned to network news as anchor of NBC's new early program, NBC News at Sunrise, which was scheduled as the lead-in to the Today program. She was also anchor of the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News and filled in for Tom Brokaw on weeknights. NBC also created two newsmagazines, American Almanac and 1986, which she co-hosted with Roger Mudd.
CBS
In 1989, Chung returned to CBS to host Saturday Night with Connie Chung (later renamed Face to Face with Connie Chung) (1989–90) and anchor CBS Sunday Evening News (1989–1993). On June 1, 1993, she became the second woman (after Barbara Walters with ABC in 1976) to co-anchor a major network's national weekday news broadcast. While hosting the CBS Evening News, Chung also hosted a side project on CBS, Eye to Eye with Connie Chung. After her co-anchoring duties with Dan Rather ended in 1995, Chung left CBS. She eventually jumped to ABC News, where she co-hosted the Monday edition of 20/20 with Charles Gibson and began independent interviews.
Kathleen Gingrich interview
In an January 5, 1995, interview by Chung on Eye to Eye with Kathleen Gingrich (mother of Republican politician Newt Gingrich), Mrs. Gingrich said she could not say what her son thought about First Lady Hillary Clinton on the air. Chung asked Mrs. Gingrich to "just whisper it to me, just between you and me"; Mrs. Gingrich's microphone volume was turned up as she replied, "He thinks she's a bitch". Many people interpreted Chung's suggestion to Mrs. Gingrich that she whisper her response as a promise that it would be off the record. Bill Carter for The New York Times reported, "Ms. Chung had become the object of some of the most ferocious criticism, justified or not, ever directed at any network anchor as a result of her now infamous interview with Speaker Newt Gingrich's mother, Kathleen". The interview was parodied on Saturday Night Live.
Oklahoma City bombing interview
A few months later, in the wake of the April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Chung was widely criticized for sarcasm as she asked an Oklahoma City Fire Department spokesman, "Can the Oklahoma City Fire Department handle this?" Many Oklahomans felt the question was insensitive to the situation. A few women created "Bite Me, Connie Chung" shirts in response to the interview. Thousands of viewers in Oklahoma and elsewhere called and wrote letters of protest over the tone of the questions. Moreover, co-anchor Dan Rather was irate that Chung was sent from New York to the assignment while he was already in nearby Texas. Consequently, after public outcry, and Rather's complaints, Chung left the network after being removed as co-anchor of CBS Evening News.
ABC
In 1997, Chung moved to ABC News as a reporter on 20/20 and cohost of the Monday edition of the program alongside Charles Gibson. In 2001, she conducted an interview with Gary Condit on Primetime Thursday, focusing on his relationship with murdered Washington, D.C., intern Chandra Levy.
She was a guest host of the morning program Good Morning America. After short-lived host Lisa McRee left the program, Chung declined to take over on a permanent basis. She also was on ABC 2000 Today in Las Vegas.
CNN
Chung, for a short time, hosted her own show on CNN titled Connie Chung Tonight, for which she was paid $2 million per year. Though her arrival at CNN was heavily hyped by the network, her show was panned by critics. CNN changed her show from live to tape-delay to improve its continuity. Although it performed moderately well in the ratings (a 500,000 increase in viewers), her show was suspended once the 2003 Iraq War began. During the war, she was reduced to reading hourly headlines. Once CNN resumed regular programming, Chung requested that CNN resume broadcasting her show as soon as possible. The network responded by cancelling it, even though her contract had not yet expired. In an interview, CNN founder Ted Turner called the show "just awful".
Martina Navratilova interview
In July 2002, Chung interviewed tennis player Martina Navratilova, who at that time had been a naturalized U.S. citizen for more than 20 years, about her recent criticisms of the U.S. political system. Chung labeled these criticisms "un-American" and "unpatriotic" and suggested Navratilova should "go back to Czechoslovakia" (which had ceased to be a united nation nine years earlier) rather than use her celebrity status to gain a platform for her complaints. When Navratilova asked why it was unpatriotic to speak out, Chung replied, "Well, you know the old line, love it or leave it".
MSNBC
In January 2006, Chung and Maury Povich began hosting a show titled Weekends with Maury and Connie on MSNBC. It was Chung's first appearance as a television host since 2003. The show was canceled shortly thereafter; in its final episode that aired June 17, 2006, Chung—dressed in a white evening gown and dancing on top of a black piano—sang a parody to the tune of "Thanks for the Memory". Video clips of the off-key farewell performance circulated on internet video sites. Chung commented, "All I want to be sure of is that viewers understood it was a giant self-parody. If anyone took it seriously, they really need to get a life".
Interview style
Chung's interviews were largely gentle, but often they were punctuated by a rapid-fire barrage of sharp questions. Despite this, her interviews were still widely recognized as being softer than those of other interviewers, such as Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace. Consequently, her interviews were often used as a public relations move by those looking to overcome scandal or controversy. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance.
Teaching
Chung accepted a teaching fellowship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While at Harvard, she wrote a discussion paper titled The Business of Getting "The Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time.
Personal life
Chung has been married to talk show host Maury Povich since 1984. They have one son, Matthew Jay Povich, whom they adopted on June 20, 1995.
Impact
In her early career, Chung was only the second woman and the first Asian to anchor a major nightly news program in the U.S. As such, for the growing number of new Chinese immigrants to the U.S. from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, she was a rare, nationally visible representative. Many of these immigrant families, wanting their daughters to achieve and succeed, named their girls Connie after the one woman on mainstream media who could be seen as a role model for them.
Career timeline
1976–1983: Evening news co-anchor at CBS-owned KNXT in Los Angeles
1983–1986: NBC News at Sunrise anchor
1983–1989: NBC Nightly News Saturday anchor
1989–1990: Saturday Night with Connie Chung/Face to Face with Connie Chung anchor
1989–1993: CBS Sunday Evening News anchor
1993–1995: CBS Evening News co-anchor (with Dan Rather)
1993–1995: Eye to Eye with Connie Chung anchor
1998–2000: 20/20 anchor
1999–2000: ABC 2000 Today correspondent
2002–2003: Connie Chung Tonight anchor
2006: Weekends with Maury and Connie anchor
See also
Chinese Americans in New York City
New Yorkers in journalism
Explanatory notes
References
External links
Maury Povich and Connie Chung Discuss Work and Family on Larry King Live
Lifetime's Intimate Portrait: Connie Chung
Mates: Maury and Connie – New York Magazine
"Countdown with Keith Olbermann" for June 22, 2006: Interview with Connie Chung after her farewell song
Connie Chung, The Business of Getting "The Get": Nailing an Exclusive Interview in Prime Time April, 1998. D-28.
Connie Chung Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
1946 births
20th-century American journalists
20th-century American women journalists
21st-century American journalists
21st-century American women journalists
60 Minutes correspondents
ABC News personalities
American journalists of Chinese descent
American television reporters and correspondents
American women journalists of Asian descent
American women television journalists
American women writers of Chinese descent
American writers of Taiwanese descent
CBS News people
CNN people
Journalists from Washington, D.C.
Living people
MSNBC people
Naturalized citizens of the United States
NBC News people
Mass media people from Bethesda, Maryland
Television anchors from Los Angeles
University of Maryland, College Park alumni
People from the Upper West Side